Amazon prime

Amazon has announced that its Prime customers can now subscribe to Cinemax and HBO as add-on video subscriptions to flesh out the Prime Video library. The HBO subscription option is the most expensive of the two at $14.99/month, the same price you’d pay if you sign up for HBO NOW directly. The subscription options are part of Amazon Channels, which already offered Starz, Showtime, Sundance Now, and a bunch more.

Amazon Prime subscribers may soon get live sports streaming as part of their Prime Video, with the retail behemoth said to be in talks with multiple leagues about a potential deal. Prime, Amazon's $99.99 a year membership scheme, began originally as a way for shoppers to get faster shipping on all of their orders with no individual surcharges, but has subsequently expanded to include a variety of content as well. In addition to Prime Video, which offers on-demand TV shows and movies, there's Prime Music, a lending library of Kindle ebooks, and more.

If you've been on the fence about subscribing to Amazon Prime, then you might like to know that the yearly cost is currently discounted. The sale, which drops the price down to $79 for your first year of Prime, will only last as long as November 18 does. That means when the clock hits 11:59 PM, Amazon Prime's price jumps back up to $99 per year.

Right now Amazon Prime Video is a streaming service rather like Netflix that is available in only a few countries around the world. Those countries include the US, UK, Germany, Austria, and Japan. A launch in India is planned as well. Hints have started to surface about the global rollout, most notably via a tweet from "The Grand Tour" and former "Top Gear" star Jeremy Clarkson.

After waiting nearly a year and a half, The Grand Tour is set to premiere on Amazon Prime video tonight. That means fans of former TopGear hosts Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond will once again be able to see them in front of the camera and behind the wheel. The show was first announced back in July of last year, and since then, Clarkson, May, and Hammond have been travelling the world filming episodes for their new series.

In the near future, some Amazon Prime members may be able to order home cleaning help through the subscription service, at least if a new job listing is anything to go by. A pair of job listings have surfaced on Amazon's website for "Home Assistant" workers who will help customers "with tidying up around the home." The job listings are only for the Seattle region, however.

Amazon's physical bookstores, which are thus far found only in select major cities, give Prime members discounts on books while everyone else (read: non-Prime members) pay the list price. The discount/no discount doesn't apply to Amazon devices, however, meaning everyone pays the same price for a Kindle or an Echo. While this may not be a big deal for occasional book buyers, it could add up substantially for those who frequently pick up the latest releases.

Amazon Prime has arrived in China as of today, and it works more or less the same way it does in the U.S. Customers in China can subscribe to a year of Prime for the equivalent of $28 USD during a promotional period, with the regular price being $57 USD. With this comes free shipping, including on imports from the Amazon Global Store. With this new business move, Amazon takes on Alibaba and other competitors.

Amazon Prime has long been the consumer's best option for getting items from tons of retailers straight to their door, but Google has been treading on that territory, and now things are heating up. Now that Google Express has expanded to cover 90-percent of the U.S., more people than ever have the service as an online shopping option. Most people aren't going to sign up for both services, though, which begs the question: which is better?

Netflix isn't what it used to be, at least if you're located in the US. Sure, you could order DVDs and probably get just about anything you want, but that seems downright archaic and slow and you may not even own a DVD player at this point, never mind watching stuff on mobile. Netflix is rolling out a ton of original content and that's great, but the licensed content library is more or less dwindling in equal measure. What happened to all the great movies and TV shows? They're chilling on Amazon Prime Video.

If Amazon has a content problem with its Fire TV and Fire TV Stick streamers, then it's the best sort of problem to have. In the two and a half years since the first generation set-top box launched, over 300,000 movies and TV shows have been added to the catalog of on-demand titles. That's along with over 7,000 channels, apps, games, and more. After a while, it starts to get a little overwhelming, hence a whole new interface for Fire TV that Amazon is previewing today.

The Amazon Echo Dot has landed in the UK and Prime members who like to order from Amazon may want to get their hands on one of the Dot devices. To get one, shoppers in the UK will need to hit up the official Amazon UK page for the Echo dot here. The Dot is offered in black or white colors and it will cost you £49.99 with free shipping in the UK. The device is in stock and ready to ship now and is shipped from Amazon EU Sarl.